Touring and Travel Articles

During my saunter around Northeast Oregon, I realize John Day is a big deal in these parts. There's John Day River, the John Day Fossil Beds and John Day City. Not bad for an ordinary member of John Jacob Astor's 1810 fur trading expedition on its way to establish Astoria, Oregon. Day's distinction? He was stripped of his clothes in an Indian ambush and left to wander naked until rescued...

Three days, three states, a Triumph Thunderbird Sport and Moto Guzzi Café Sport sound like a recipe for adventure to me. So, when the phone call came through to ask if I wanted to come along, it certainly didn't take much more than a split second to sign up for this one, especially as the start of the tour is less than three hours from my North Carolina home.

Adventure is going into the unknown. Even on familiar roads, I can never anticipate what will be seen or experienced. Nor can I predict how it will all end. As my bike dove into an impossibly green canyon, these thoughts arose superimposed on beautiful images of the landscape and analysis of the asphalt ribbon. But if these thoughts were premonitions, I certainly didn't heed them.

Most people visit Copper Canyon by rail, a spectacular ride on the Chihuahua Pacifico Railroad, crossing 39 bridges and 86 tunnels along a rift bigger than the Grand Canyon! Quite an adventure if you're partial to traveling in boxes, but the rugged scenery and cultural gems of the Tarahumara Indian homeland are even more accessible to a motorcyclist - and for the sporting rider the roads are to die for. And since this is Mexico, the latter is always a real possibility.

Gliding silently around the sweeping curves of Route 287 on our second day, we venture deeper into the north woods of Pennsylvania. Riding in the cold half-light of an overcast fall morning, we suddenly throttle back for road construction up ahead. The flagman, surprised to see three apparently lost souls on motorcycles, saunters over to chat while we wait. "When do you usually get the first snowfall around here?" I ask him a little nervously. "It snowed two weeks ago," he replies.

The hot springs of Paraiso, Esalen, and Tassajara are known as the 'Ah Spas.' Line them up for an afternoon ride, and you're in for some serious Central California soaking. Pick the right day and you may meet actor Branscombe Richmond and his wife Lei.

Motorcycle Reviews

In the ST1300, Honda has introduced a bike with more capacity, more power, a lighter frame, and more equipment features than its predecessor. If you need a comfortable bike for longer trips that is still sporty enough for twisty roads, here it is.

An old German adage seems fitting: Anyone declared dead who returns lives longer. Kicked out of the range in 1999, Triumph's classic standard, the Thunderbird Sport, returned from oblivion in 2003. This road-worthy revenant boasts some minor changes but the character of the bike is unaffected.